Playing in the Shadows
by Le Requiem
Summary: one day you'll be a man, and men can do terrible things...six year old Itachi was just curious and Mikoto is a bit dismayed — Itachi


**disclaimer_**blah blah blah, disclaim disclaim disclaim

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><p><strong>Playing in the Shadows<strong>

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**prompt**_one day you'll be a man and men can do terrible things

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Itachi was breaking wings again.

Sitting in the shade offered by the giant oak tree, the six year old boy was patterned with silver dapples as the sunlight strained down through the leaves and branches. His mother had sent him out in a t-shirt and shorts to play and the coarse grass had begun to itch his bare legs, but he ignored it; he was too preoccupied by the cicada between his fingers, or rather, pieces of the cicada.

He held the broken-off wing over one eye like a monocle, closing the other eye so that he could peer through it's opaque membrane and lattice work of veins.. Just a few inches from where Itachi sat crossed legged, a cicada lay upturned on its back, it's other wing already ripped off and carefully placed just a few centimeters from where it had originally been attached. The insect's two out of six legs flailed wildly in silent pain. To the right of the bug, the other four legs were stacked into a neat, orderly pile.

Satisfied with his examination of the wing, Itachi laid it down next to the small heap of legs. Reaching over, he picked up the cicada. He was impressed by how much fight the creature still had left in it as its spindly pair of legs waved frantically, struggling (which Itachi thought was useless) against the inevitable.

Pinching the body between his thumb and forefinger, he brought what was left of the bug close to his face. Staring intently at the specimen, he pinched the head between his thumb and forefinger (the cicada struggled harder). Experience had taught him that decapitation was a delicate process; too much pressure and he might accidentally crush the head. So very slowly, very carefully, he began to pull —

"Itachi-kun!"

The head exploded between his fingers.

He looked over his shoulder. "Kaa-san," he said, greeting her with a nod.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Itachi held out the cicada's now-still body. "Dissecting."

His mother crouched down to meet him face to face, and Itachi took note of her pursed lips; it seemed Kaa-san was upset.

"And why were you dissecting _Konchu-san _Itachi-kun?" His mother asked as she took Konchu-san out of his hands.

"It's not 'Konchu-san' Kaa-san, it's called a cicada," Itachi corrected.

Mikoto let the bug fall from her hands. "Yes, of course. Why were you dissecting the cicada Itachi-kun?"

"I was curious."

She suppressed a look of dismay with a forced smile. _It's fine, all boys are like this at his age, right?_ "Itachi, even if you're curious, there are certain things you shouldn't do, didn't I tell you that before?" She reminded him while pulling him up to stand with her.

He looked up at her, brows wrinkling with confusion. "I thought that was only butterflies."

Mikoto leaned over to dust off the seat of his pants, exhaled loudly, and straightened herself with a soft, gentle smile curving across her face. She pushed back his bangs tenderly before running her hand through the rest of his thick black hair. "Itachi-kun, you love Fujimaru, right?"

The boy looked up, innocent and callow-eyed, at his mother and nodded hesitantly, unsure why Kaa-san was suddenly asking about his pet cat.

"Would you ever break off Fujimaru's legs?"

He furiously shook his head from side to side. "No, never!"

"Why not?"

He needed a moment to think about that.

"Well... Fujimaru's my friend, and I don't want to hurt him."

Mikoto nodded understandingly and crouched down, gently cupping the side of his tiny face with her hand. "Did you want to hurt the cicada?"

"No," he said in a small voice, "I just wanted to know."

Relief blossomed through her. _He's a good kid._"But pulling it's legs off would hurt too right?"

Itachi seemed to dwell deeply on this, his toddler-sized fist pressed against his lips in a gesture that mimicked Fugaku's when he was deep in thought. He looked down at the remains of the bug between him and his mother. He turned his palm up and studied the tips of his fingers. They were smeared with black and red— blood.

He raised his head to meet his mother's eyes again and she was surprised by the heavy sadness in his gaze. His grave expression looked far too old on the young boy. "Yes, it would, but I didn't mean to."

She ruffled his hair. _Really, a good kid_. "Did you know Itachi-kun? Even bugs like cicada have feelings like Fujimaru. It's just that they're so small, sometimes you can't hear them when they're hurting."

"I didn't mean to hurt anything," he repeated, his distraught tone imploring his mother to understand that he was Good.

Mikoto planted a kiss on his forehead. "I know Itachi-kun, I know. So, let's make a promise." She made a fist with her hand, stuck out her pinky, and raised it to her son. "Promise Kaa-san you'll never again hurt or kill anything out of curiosity." (because she was also a Shinobi, and therefore, wise to the reality that there would come a day when he'd take a life).

And Itachi, her eldest son who was only six years old, had a grave and solemn look on his face as he locked pinkies with her. "I promise." He answered with all the sincerity of a boy who knew that a promise was never meant to be broken, especially a pinky promise with one's mother.

Satisfied, Mikoto nodded approvingly and stood up, sighing loudly to clear the air between them. "Now, let's go in and wake your brother up from his nap, it's almost lunch time!"

Itachi nodded and let her take his hand. They walked towards the house, leaving behind the cicada's body as it lay butchered in the oak tree's shadow.

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*_konchu— insect_

_*kaa-san — mom_


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